This invention relates to sealing elements for effecting a seal employable, for instance, when a rotatable shaft is to be sealed towards a stationary housing. In this connection, a tight seal is produced between a stationary sealing element connected to the static part and a second sealing element connected to the rotatable part. In order to provide good durability for these sealing elements the sealing ring, i.e., a part of one sealing element that is in contact with a corresponding sealing ring part of the other sealing element, usually is made of cemented carbide or another hard material.
It has, however, turned out to be difficult to manufacture sealing rings of solid cemented carbide having diameters greater than 300 mm. This has led to the fact that such sealing rings are manufactured of a more malleable but also considerably less wear-resistant material than cemented carbide. The consequence of this has been that the sealing elements in the machines involve more frequent replacement with long shut-down periods as a result, which means high operating costs of these machines.
The object of the present invention is to solve this problem and permit use of cemented carbide or another hard material even in sealing rings having diameters greater than 300 mm.